Where you can grow your own health

Inspired Stuffed Acorn Squash

When the gardens are still producing, as they are now, I often don’t pre-plan dinner. I simply stroll through the rows and pick the veggies that appeal to me, and then let the meal unfold. If you don’t have a garden to stroll through you can still have a similar experience while strolling through the produce section of your favorite organic market. We all have an inner intelligence, and this intuition can guide us to make wise food choices. All we have to do is quiet our minds and passively connect to this wisdom.

Indulge me while I share what I think is an interesting related story. Many years ago, our family raised a pair of ducklings that our son brought home from the agricultural program at his middle school. Unfortunately when just a few months old, the ducks were severely injured by the neighbor’s dog, both requiring surgery. While recuperating, they instinctively knew they needed nutrients available in our tomato garden. Every day they plucked the fully ripened tomatoes from the vines! We watched in awe as they methodically plucked and mashed the tomatoes with their bills until they could guzzle them down their long necks. We knew an inner intelligence was guiding this behavior, so rather than stand in the way of Nature we allowed them to own those tomatoes. That beautiful pair of Pekin ducks survived that whole ordeal and lived on for many summers, but never again saw the need to pick even one more tomato. What a wise guy and gal!

So anyway, tonight I found myself picking acorn squash, habanero peppers, lacinato kale, tomatoes and cucumber. I laid them out and added our home grown onions, garlic and apple to the mix as well as walnuts and a maitake mushroom (AKA hen of the woods), which I recently bought from the market. I took a photo and while admiring this beautiful bounty it became clear I had the makings for stuffed acorn squash and tomato-cucumber salad.

I placed the acorn squash halves face down in a covered baking dish, added 1/4″ of water and then baked until soft in a 375 degree oven for approximately 40 minutes. While the squash was baking, I added 1 teas of olive oil to a skillet and sautéed the veggies on medium heat. I seasoned with garlic powder, a bit of sea salt and sage from the garden, which I had hung and dried earlier in the season.

Once the squash was cooked through I turned them over and drizzled maple syrup into the cavity before filling – lovely, gifted maple syrup that my son and his girl tapped earlier in the spring! I baked for 10 minutes or so just to heat everything through and then drizzled more maple syrup on top before serving with the tomato-cucumber salad.

Acorn squash is high in:

Antioxidants

Fiber

Vitamins

Minerals

Phytonutrients

Beneficial for:

Immune System

Vision

Skin

Nervous System

Blood Pressure

Bon Appétit!

And remember, if you aren’t eating for health, you’re eating for dis-ease.